What is a shot, anyway?

To be honest, I have worked on a couple of films sets now and obviously studied this area for about 3 years now and haven’t properly thought about what the definition of a shot is. I believe I have used it correctly in conversation and I have looked at shot lists and so on. Although before reading this chapter I would not have been able to tell you the definition of a shot correctly, even though I might have thought I could.

It is also new information to me that directors mostly don’t know how their scene will be shot before the day. I was under the impression that the shots should be planned and on the shot list before the day commences. But obviously every set is different, and we saw this later in the chapter.

I suppose it is interesting to note that the term was labelled a shot back when they were using film, so does that mean it is more or less irrelevant now? Should we relabel it? Or does it work how it is? Or would it be useful to have an extra word that helps differentiate between the few different meanings? In my mind it would make sense, but I suppose it would be difficult to implement this when everyone is working the way that they know.

 

 

Blocking is overlooked and undervalued

I think I learnt just how important blocking actors are in the very first class that we had for this course. Not being able to see how the actors were blocked in the actual film scenes and then seeing how our groups tried to create them was interesting! I think what stood out to me most was how simple most of the shots and blocking were in the films. Usually if I think about how a scene should be shot it is in many back and forth shots. But this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case and I’d like to train my mind not think like that. I also feel like I made a huge realisation that just because it’s a professional film doesn’t mean that I couldn’t achieve that type of thing. Maybe it would look better with a more professional camera, but I can *almost* always achieve the same type of shots as a professional film could.

My question after reading this chapter is, why would a director not then figure out the blocking in pre-production so that the pacing of the film is thought out initially? It seems to be quite integral to the actual storyline and pacing in the film.

After thinking about this point for a little longer, I think that it may make sense to have the actors play through it first as it will feel and look more natural at least for them. If the director sets up exactly where an actor needs to walk, I suppose it would feel less organic and possibly fake. I like how Woody decides to shoot the blocking, I think the more organised you can be the better.

I decided to watch a couple of videos on YouTube about blocking after I read this because I felt I wanted to see examples of actors blocking. I watched this video about how Woody Allen blocks his scenes and plans his shots (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-dxv3k1eVs). This was very interesting to see how much thought was put into these. I loved the example where the first meeting of the characters seemed more awkward by having each character in their own frame, but then having the couple in the same master shot for the rest of the film was such a subtle but clever way to show the relationship changing over time! I would like to make sure to keep a keener eye on this type of stuff next time I watch a film.

After watching this small video, I thought about the importance of blocking more. I still believe that it makes more sense to plan the shots in advance. In the video they discuss how important it is in Woody Allen’s films for him to have the actors in a particular shot and set out in a particular way in the shot. I still believe in my mind that this should be how it is done and that the actors you hire should be able to look natural in the scene even though you may have directed exactly where they need to stand and how they need to move. But it is possible this thought I have is naïve of me to think as I have not had a lot of experience. Planning the shots would also take up possibly too much time if it just needs to be blocked again while on set.